Youth and Deviance Flashcards
What pop culture things were blamed for ruining children’s moral compass?
Video games and comics
Despite emotional claims that video games were creating school shooters, what were the violence rates?
Despite emotional claims that video games were causing teens to kill their peers nationwide, youth violence rates had actually dropped during the 1990s; school shootings had declined as well –>no new wave of killing among youth in 1990s or in 2000s
Define high culture
→opera, ballet, some forms of theatre and art
→enjoyed predominantly by those with wealth, status, and power rather than the masses
→enriching, educational, aesthetically important
Define mass culture
forms of entertainment that are created for a large audience, primarily for profit, and enjoyed by a wider, perhaps less discriminating audience
→unimportant, vulgar, dangerous
What are the negative impacts of technological changes?
Technological changes = media consumption more private and segmented (hard to monitor and control)
→shift made content more niche-specific, less targeted to general audience
→leading to distinct “taste communities” (divided by age, less appealing to adults)
What are moral panics?
widespread fear that arises which is dramatically out of proportion with the actual threat
Panics and crusades happen at particular places and times for a reason, especially when structural and cultural shifts take place
Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda: a moral panic is a: “strong, widespread (although not necessarily universal) fear or concern that evil doings are afoot, that certain enemies of society are trying to harm some or all of the rest of us
Moral panics focus on people, groups, or things that seem to threaten the very moral fiber of society
What is a moral crusader?
A moral crusader tries to get the public’s attention for a cause that they see as creating a threat to the overall wellbeing of society, appear in news media convincing others that, unless something is done, more people will be hurt by what they cast as a new and growing problem
→ see themselves as battling against evil and often use highly emotional arguments to win people over to their cause
→ have a “solution to the problem”
→highlight competing values
What is a moral entrepreneur?
Moral entrepreneurs: people who may also experience a rise in status due to their leadership role
→often work creatively to influence media coverage, getting their cause(s) in the limelight as often as possible
→often charismatic, or successfully draw in others to their cause to become spokespeople
→more focused on potential personal gains than moral crusaders
What are folk devils?
Definition: the people, group, or characteristic that becomes portrayed in a uniformly threatening fashion, SUBJECT OF A MORAL PANIC
→ stereotypical portrayal as atypical actors against a background that is over typical
What is the constructionist perspective?
Constructionist perspective unpacks the ways in which we think about deviance, asking more than just “is it wrong?” but “ who insists that something is wrong?”
→“why is something considered wrong in one circumstance in one time or place, but not another?
→unpacks the ways in which we think about deviance, asking more than just “is it wrong?”
→ “ who insists that something is wrong?”
→ “why is something considered wrong in one circumstance, in one time or place, but not another?
→ considers who might benefit from defining an individual, group, or behavior as deviant
How do moral crusaders deflect from real issues?
Moral crusaders deflect attention away from family violence and instability, bullying, mental health issues, and decreased funding for education
Most youth violence takes place in areas plagued by poverty, high unemployment, illegal drug trade, and limited opportunity
→focusing on video games helps us ignore structural conditions of urban centers and why neighborhoods divested of industry, basic amenities like grocery chains, and other necessities breed violence
What did people fear would cause juvenile delinquency?
Fears of comic books caused juvenile delinquency
→concerns about comic books was that they would replace more traditional reading and create a dependence on visual entertainment
- Comics as a “threat to character development” fear that children won’t read classic literature
-Catholic church critic: hero worship as a form of paganism that was akin to fascism, clearing way for totalitarian state
What was the Comstock Law about?
Comstock Law: made selling crime stories potentially illegal if they were deemed lascivious
→any info about sex (health and birth control info) a crime
What did anti-comic book crusades provide insight on?
- postwar changes in conceptions of adolescence as well as the growth of entertainment media
- anxiety about young people’s physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being ran high
- growth of popular culture targeted specifically at children and teens was relatively new, a change that felt invasive and threatening
